Apologize
by Blue Seidr
Summary: One night after the events of Enemy of my Enemy, Leo can't sleep and creeps out to the surface. There, he meets the subject of his distress of late. And he learns that sometimes two little words are all it takes. And sometimes you need a whole speech. Bad summary, great oneshot. Please read! :-)


**Yay, two oneshots posted in one day! True, I wrote these weeks ago, but it takes awhile to type them. See, everytime I watch Enemy of my Enemy, I start screaming at Leo to shelve his pride and go apologize to Karai. So in this I wrote what I would love Leo to have done so I can stop screaming at my TV and my sister and parents will stop looking at me like I'm crazy. Mwahaha! Did I say that out loud? Um, hehe, please read and review...**

**Apologize!**

Leo gasped and bolted up in bed. He took a few shaky, quick breaths and calmed himself. He looked at his clock. 3:39 am. He had only been asleep for a couple of hours and already his nightmare was plauging him.

For the past week since his last encounter with Karai, he had relived one of the worst nights of his life in his sleep, sometimes more than once. Leo reached up to wipe his brow of sweat, but felt something else on his cheeks, something not sticky like sweat. Tears. _This is taking a bigger toll on me than I thought_ Leo thought, _if it can cause me to cry._

Every night, he had to watch himself help try to assassinate Shredder, then fight with Karai and listen to her yell about how she thought he was her friend, and how he had betrayed her. He wanted to say he was sorry, but he could never get a single sound out. Sometimes Karai killed him. Sometimes he killed her. Either way, it scared him so much he woke up in a cold sweat.

Leo geared up, grabbed his swords and slung them over his shell. He needed some air. He crept past his brother's bedroom doors and had almost made it to the subway exit when -

"Where are you going, Leonardo?" Leo winced. Busted. He turned around and looked guiltily at his Sensi and adopted father, Master Splinter.

"I'm sorry Sensi. I was just going out for some fresh air. I'm sorry." Leo bowed and started to head back to his room.

"And where are you going now?" Master Splinter called.

Leo turned around, confused. "Back to my room Sensi."

"I never said you could not go up to the surface."

Leo smiled. "So I can go?"

"Yes, just be back before morning and be careful."

Leo bowed again. "Hai Sensi."

Carefully making sure no one was around, he lifted up the manhole cover and hopped out, taking a deep breath of fresh, non-filtered air. He climbed a nearby fire escape and started running across rooftops, determined to outrun the horrors of his dream. He cleared his mind as best he could and just ran, enjoying the feel of the wind streaming through his mask tassles.

Though he had huge reserves of stamina, he had to rest eventually. He picked a rooftop and stopped to catch his breath. Then he saw what rooftop he was on. It was the Byerly Building, where weeks ago at midnight he had meet up with Karai. He started thinking about his nightmare, then started reliving it. He collapsed, falling to his knees. He had made a horrible mistake. He had lost Karai and it was all his fault.

He sat for minutes that felt like hours, wrapped up in his own guilt and misery. He closed his eyes, picturing Karai's pretty face twisted in betrayal. It hurt him, seeing her like that and knowing he had caused it. A single tear ran down his cheek and he quickly wiped it away.

A few more eternities passed before Leo heard soft footsteps behind him. He growled. He couldn't have one night alone to grieve, could he? He reached for his swords and stood, barking as he did, "I'm in a horrible mood tonight. You don't want to face me."

"Oh, I think I do." A sly voice called. Leo nearly dropped his swords as he turned around.

"Ka-Karai." He gasped. He felt his cheeks get hot and cleared his throat. "Karai." He tried again.

Karai drew her sword. "Where are your brothers?"

"Not here, obviously." He huffed.

She stared at him coldly for a few seconds, then seemed to believe him.

"Let me guess." Leo sighed. "You're here to restore your honor by chipping me into a million pieces."

"You're not as stupid as you look." She snarled.

Leo sighed again and resheathed his swords. "Go ahead. Do your worst."

Karai glared at him, suspecting a trick. "What?"

Leo sat down, legs crisscrossed. "I said go ahead. I don't care. I deserve it. And it can't make me feel any worse than I already do."

Now Karai's gaze was startled, looking at him like he had just grown another head. "You - You feel bad about it?"

He nodded. "Every moment since, I've regretted it. I feel awful. You gave me your trust and I threw it away, I didn't know, Karai. I had no idea about Shredder. I thought that he was just your leader and that you were sick of him. But even so, I shouldn't have been talked into it. I should have stood my ground. I was an idiot and I'm sorry, Karai."

Leo took a breath and slightly bowed his head while Karai looked on in shock. This was quite a speech for the masked leader.

Karai didn't know what to think. When she had spooted him on the rooftop, she had expected to fight, to at least exchange insults, not to get what seemed to be a heartfelt apology. A REALLY heartfelt apology.

Karai sighed inwardly. She was never good with emotions, decoding or expressing them. A voice in her head, Shredder's, said to refuse his apology, to chop his head off NOW. But somewhere else, a voice pleaded forgiveness. She looked at Leo closer. Up close, she could see hollow cheeks and faint black circles under his eyes. He hadn't been sleeping well. She also saw sincerity, real pain, real sorrow. He MEANT this apology. She thought back to the docks, then to the Kraang lab. She had betrayed his trust first, yet he forgave her, even trusted her enough to take her back to the turtle's van.

Now it was time to return the favor.

"I forgive you." The female ninja whispered.

Leo's head snapped up in surprise. "What? I mean, ya-you do? Th-Thank you. You don't know how much that - ACK!"

Karai, quick as a viper, leaned in close and pressed her sword to his throat. "Don't ever do it again. This is a onetime deal."

Leo couldn't help but notice how close they were, their faces literally inches apart. It would be so easy to lean in a little closer and - _NO. No way, Leo._ He scolded himself. She would pummel him, or laugh. Or laugh, then pummel him. Plus there was the small matter of her father being the Shredder.

"Understood." He gasped, his face a burning pink.

Karai back off, a condescending looking on her face. "Good. Now are you going to sit there all night or do you want to go a few rounds?"

Leo smirked. _That was quick._ He thought. He stood up and stretched to return some feeling to his muscles. "Sure, why not?" He drew one of his swords and bowed to Karai. "Anata ni chokumen suru meiyo." _An honor to face you. __  
_

_Karai smiled in delight at her native tounge. She bowed back and repeated Leo's words. Her delighted smile then turned into a wolfish smirk as she lunged. Lei easily deflected, and the fight began._

_Like with most of their fights, Leo got the sense that Karai was holding back, like he was. He felt it was more like play-sparring than a real fight, demonstrating their abilities rather than trying to hurt each other._

_ Though he'd never admit it, he enjoyed his confrontations with Karai. It was fun to be able to spar with another swordsman, or swordswoman in this case. He could forget about everything else, the only things mattering the swings and blows. Plus, it was really the only way to spend time with Karai. Technically, they were mortal enemies. He couldn't just call her up and ask her to hang out, no matter how badly he wanted to. That was the price he paid for secretly liking a girl in the Foot._

_ They spared on and on, exchanging comments and tips, each enjoying their back and forth. All too soon though, the sun started peeking over the horizon._

_ "Love to stay and finish this, but I've got to head back." Leo said._

_ "Of course you do." Karai rolled her eyes jokingly._

_ "See you around?"_

_ Karai smirked. "Always." A run and jump later, she was gone. Leo smiled, then trekked back to the manhole cover below. His heart was light in his chest, and although he was silent as he walked home, inside he was shouting and jumping for joy. He had made up with Karai and spent the last couple of hours with her. It was a good night, or rather, morning. _

_ His brothers were up when he returned to the lair. _

_ "Where've you been, bro?" Mikey asked the minute he saw Leo return._

_ "Oh, nowhere." Leo said, sidestepping the question._

_ "Technically," Donnie piped up, "It's impossible to be nowhere. You are always in a place in the universe, even if it has no - "_

_ "Can it Donnie, it's too early in the morning for this." Raph growled before turning to Leo._

_ "So where were you?"_

_ "Just around." He couldn't help himself. A smile stole over his face as he remembered his time with Karai._

_ One side of Raph's mask rose, like he was raising his one of his eyebrows. "Oh really? What's got you in such a good mood?"_

_ Leo just smirked a little more. "Oh, nothing." And with that he headed into the kitchen to get some breakfast before training (even Leo can't mess up cereal)._

_ "He made up with Karai." Raph said as soon as Leo was out of earshot._

_ "What? How can you know that?" Donnie asked._

_ "He's happier than he's been in a week after a trip to the surface. No way that's a coincidence. Plus that's the look you get everytime you talk about April."_

_ "He-Hey! I do not!" Donnie stuttered, blushing profoundly. _

_ "Awwwww, he made up with his girlfriend." Mikey cooed. "We're allowed to tease him about this, right?"_

_ "Oh, yeah." Raph said with an evil grin._

_ "HEY LEO!"_

**_I hope you liked my story. Please review in the magma chute below and read my other stories, if you'd like. Thanks for reading!_**


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